Alton Peterson, an internal revenue agent, was robbed at gunpoint at 8 p.m. at 1611 N. Wood Ave. The stickup was similar to a string of robberies in Colorado Springs the prior several months.

The robber was wearing a white handkerchief over the lower part of his face. He ran up behind Peterson as he was walking home from the post office, according to a Denver Post article. When Peterson dropped his wallet on the ground as ordered the robber ordered him to “keep going.” The tall, slender robber took $6 from the wallet and ran.

Police officer Richard S. Burchfield, 34, was one of several officers who drove quickly to the area searching for the suspect. Shortly afterwards nine shots rang out.

Newspaper employee Robert McVay, then 24, drove by the corner of Bijou and El Paso streets in downtown Colorado Springs at about 8:15 p.m. It was only six blocks from the police station.

A patrol car had parked diagonally against a curb, with one wheel over the curb. A police officer was slumped against the steering wheel and the headlights and inside lights of the car were still on.

McVay drove around the block and circled back to the car.

He got out and walked up to the patrol car. Beside the officer, he was startled to see a man crouched on the floor. McVay asked the officer if he needed any help. The other man replied, “Hell no,” according to a Denver Post article dated Nov. 27, 1953.

The young man dressed in a dark jacket and light pants was searching for something on the floor. Authorities believed he may have been trying to pick shell casings up off the floorboard.

McVay ran back to his car and drove around the block one more time. When he circled back to the police car, the other man was halfway down the block inside a dark club coupe. McVay drove around the block one more time and the man had returned to the police car and was again searching for something on the floor.

McVay drove to the police station and reported what he had seen.

Police Chief I. B. “Dad” Bruce told a reporter that McVay was very lucky. In all likelihood the killer had fired all the bullets from his gun or he would have likely shot McVay as well.

When officers arrived, they found their friend and colleague, Burchfield, in the driver’s seat.

He had been shot multiple times.

When last seen, it appeared that he was going to look for suspects in the robberies.

An investigation determined that Burchfield had been shot at close range.

The odd part was that he likely had been shot by someone inside his car, sitting right next to him in the front passenger seat.

Found underneath Officer Burchfield’s body was an ID card stolen from Peterson. It could have been what the robber had been searching for. Realizing that if the stickup could be tied to the police shooting, then the robbery victim might be able to solve two crimes by helping to identify him.

Burchfield likely arrested the robber, placed him in the seat beside him, and while questioning him the robber pulled out a gun and started blasting away. The officer was struck with bullets three times in the right arm, twice in the right shoulder, and once in the chest, cheek, right eyebrow and behind the right ear.

Either Burchfield hadn’t searched the suspect or did so but hadn’t found the gun. Burchfield’s gun was still holstered.

“He didn’t have a chance,” Bruce told a reporter in 1953.

Bruce described Burchfield’s killer as a “punk, hoodlum kid.”

McVay described the suspect’s car as being a dark 1937 to 1941 Ford coupe. He said the suspect was tall, between 20 and 25.

A screaming headline the next morning across the top of The Denver Post declared: “Dragnet for Police Killer.”

“Colorado Springs, Nov. 27. – The biggest manhunt in the history of central Colorado was under way…” the 1953 article said.

State, county, local and military police joined the search for the killer. Roadblocks were set up for the killer who “pumped nine .22-caliber bullets” into Burchfield. Several off-duty officers volunteered for the assignment.

Hundreds of people called police with tips. Police brought in more than 600 suspects to the police station for interviews during the following days, weeks, months and years, but no one has ever been formally charged with the murder.

Several men confessed to killing the officer including a California man and a 19-year-old Evansville, Ind. man, but they were later released when they were proven to be liars.

Burchfield’s widow criticized the department’s policy of having officers riding alone in patrol cars. She said the shooting wouldn’t have happened if two officers had been in the car.

Burchfield, a U.S. Air Force veteran, had three children: Marlene, 16, Gary, 12, and Darlene, 10. That Thanksgiving night, his wife had prepared a turkey sandwich for him and was awaiting his return home. Burchfield family Thanksgivings from then on would have new meaning.

Burchfield was described as a compassionate police officer whose temperament had a calming affect on people.

Just two weeks before his death, Burchfield had answered a domestic violence call and was confronted by a man pointing a rifle at him and telling him he hated cops.

Burchfield didn’t pull out his gun. Instead, he walked towards the man as he spoke to him in a soft voice. The man handed his rifle to Burchfield. The officer charged the man with disturbing the peace, a misdemeanor.

Though Burchfield’s murder happened 57 years ago, the killer was young at the time and could still be alive. Colorado Springs’ cold case unit recently posted details about the case on-line, hoping that someone will come forward.

The killer would likely be in his mid- to late 70s.

Over the years, he may have told someone about a deed he committed years earlier on a holiday.

Contact information: The Colorado Springs Police Department can be reached at 719-444-7613. Denver Post reporter Kirk Mitchell at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com[2] or Twitter.com/kmitchellDP